


all i want

by NotSummer



Series: AU One-shots [7]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cheesy, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Secret Admirer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-03 22:55:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14006640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotSummer/pseuds/NotSummer
Summary: Occasionally Miyala finds gifts left outside her door. Thankfully, one of her dorm-mates from down the hall has offered to help.





	all i want

Miyala squeezed out the elevator she had been taking with some group of jocks, slipping back to her dorm. It had been a long day of classes and overcast weather and her forgotten lunch and she was in a foul mood. She turned the corner to her hallway, aware of the group behind her making their own way to their dorms, which were just beyond hers. She’d seen them around.

She paused as she finished the turn, narrowed her eyes, and then stepped forward. Her lekku flopped over her shoulder as she leaned down to pick up the little vase of flowers. Her brow furrowed as she fumbled for the note attached to it.

_ Saw you having a bad day. Hope this cheers you up _ .

Nothing to indicate who it was from. She looked around, as if she could spot the person who had sent it to her, but only caught the eye of the last boy into the suite. She recognized him from a few of her classes, and he waved and grinned at her before shutting the door behind him, leaving her alone in the hall.

She buried her nose in the flowers, inhaling deeply. They smelled lovely, looked lovely. She felt better, and she smiled down at them before unlocking her own door. She spent the next few days staring at people's paperwork, trying to match the handwriting, but to no avail, and she gave up.

A few week later, she found a gift wrapped package. It had a gift card to her favorite local Rylothian take out, and some pens and another note.

_ You work hard, I’m impressed every time I see you. Keep it up, but don’t forget to breathe. _

Miyala opened her door, looking around. Again, a futile gesture. There was a couple kids heading back to their dorms, and one of the young men passing her by stopped, giving her a curious look. He was the same man who had waved at her the first time she had gotten a gift. “You alright? You look irritated.”

His friends stopped to wait for him, and he waved them off. They gave him big thumbs ups, and she hid a smile. “I’m fine, really. Just. Someone has left me gifts twice now, and I want to thank them, but I have no idea who it is!”

“Do you have a list of people it could be?” He leaned back against the hallway wall, looking curious.

“Well. It’s probably someone either in this dorm or my classes. I’ve tried peeking at people’s handwriting, but nothing really matched.”

“I can help you find them,” he offered. She mentally crossed him off the list of people who were sending her flowers, and was surprised to feel… disappointed… at the idea. He wouldn’t have offered to help if he was the one sending them.

“Sure,” she agreed. “Jesse, right? I think you’re in my intro to engineering class? And english and history.”

“Miyala, yeah?” At her nod, he continued, “Gotta love those freshman gen ed credits.”

She laughed. “Yeah, they’re a pain.”

Over the next few weeks, her and Jesse worked to talk to other people, spy on handwriting. Slowly, she whittled her list down, but she was sitting in his dorm room sprawled next to him as they worked on engineering homework that she realized she didn’t really want to know.

She had spent the last few weeks hanging out with Jesse, eating together, plotting together. She had built a friendship with him. Now she was realizing she wanted more.

He was chattering about programming, a conversation she struggled to follow but enjoyed hearing him talk about anyways, but he trailed off when he saw her expression. His eyes narrowed. “Are you alright?”

She blinked, and shook her head, wiping away whatever expression had crawled onto her face. “It’s nothing. What were you saying?”

He frowned, giving her a wary curious look, but slowly picked up his spiel again. He got more and more animated as the conversation got deeper into slicing, and her grin grew. He finished, and then pointed at her. “You. Are making fun of me.”

“I would never! It’s just. Good to see you excited.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Right, that’s what it is.”

Miyala shook her head at him, smiling. “Fine, don’t believe me, then.” She leaned back over the textbook between them, spinning it to face her. “We were on problem 47.A?”

“Yeah,” he groaned. “I hate physics.”

“You’re in  _ engineering _ .”

“For Computer Science,” he insisted. “Programming! Slicing! I don’t need to know what the friction of a surface is!”

She held up a finger, “Alright, you might have a point, but I’m an electrical engineering student, and I don’t need this, and I’m not complaining.”

“That’s because you understand it, Ala.”

“And I don’t understand your programming! It all evens out. Here, I’ll show you a trick.”

They worked through the problems, which had been intended to give students an understanding of various engineering issues. She stuttered on the computer ones, and they both swore at the materials ones, but inevitably, victory was theirs and she triumphantly slammed the textbook closed.

“Careful with that,” Jesse said dryly. “The cost of it is enough to send my kids to school. And I am including inflation.”

“I thought the Army was paying for you to go to school?”

“Okay, true,” he admitted. “But I want the money back from my textbook.” He flicked his gaze over to the clock in the corner. “And speaking of army, I have PT in the morning, so you need to shoo.”

She groaned, and stood up, stretching. “Fine. I’m leaving. Have fun in the morning.” 

He followed her to the door. “Yeah, that’s what they call it. Fun.”

She shook her head, smiling as she headed back to her own dorm room. Jalra and Ana rolled their eyes at her as she slipped back inside. “Well, we were wondering where you were, but from the look on your face, you don’t have to answer,” Jalra snickered.

Miyala glared at them before heading to her half of the dorm room. The dorms had been meant for four people, but they had never been assigned their fourth, so Miyala got half the dorm to herself. Jalra and Ana were not exactly upset about sharing.

She moved slowly through her own nighttime routine, thoughts far away, and slipped into bed, clambering onto the top bunk. She rolled around restless, unable to sleep or get comfortable, but eventually she managed to drift off.

The next day, her and Jesse fell into the same routine as always, but now she felt hyperaware of him. Everytime he shifted, every time he spoke up in class, answering the teacher or asking a question. It felt impossible for her not to notice the thrum of his deep voice, the innocuous brush of his arm against her shoulder, the deftness of his fingers as her flipped a pencil around them, fidgeting as he always did.

He nudged her as they left their last class. “You alright?”

She held her book closer, nervous. “Yeah, I’m just. Distracted. Thinking.”

“Dangerous,” he teased. “What about?”

She started to shake her head, to deflect and redirect the conversation, she blurted out, “I like you.”

Something tightened in his eyes, something hopeful, but all he said was, “I’d hope so, we eat lunch together like every day. And homework together. And we talk rather-.”

Fear of being vulnerable, of putting herself out there tightened around her vocal cords, but she shook her head, interrupting. “No, like. More than friends.” Gods, she was a mess.

He stepped closer to her, dropping his backpack to the ground to free his arms. He leaned down, meeting her eyes. “Good,” he murmured, “Because you mean a lot to me.” He kissed her, quickly, pulling back to see her reaction, and when she grinned at him, leaned back in. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

Slowly, she pulled back, and then her eyes narrowed. “I never actually asked. Were you the one leaving the gifts?”

He grinned. “Maybe. Worked, didn’t it?”

She rolled her eyes, still grinning, and hugged him. “You could have said something.” She stepped back, grabbing his bag and handing it back to him. 

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and shook his head at her. “But it was fun leaving additional presents. You smiled when you got them. It was. Good to see.”

She blushed, turning dark purple. She opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came to mind. Finally she muttered, “Just you wait, I’ll get you something.”

His grin turned cheeky. “That’s alright. I got you.”

**Author's Note:**

> not my best work, but it was worth it for the final line, which is the CHEESIEST. 
> 
> it's fanfic, i do what i want.


End file.
